Dha Werda Verda: RC1220
by TWong
Summary: Inside the mind of a Republic Commando, from the perspective of RC1220, Icer, of Cryo Squad.
1. Chapter One: Kamino

"Three, two, one, fire in the hole!"

As the charge blows the door open, I toss the grenade in and wait for the bang. Then I swing around the doorjamb, cutting the pie in a single liquid-smooth movement, fast as a saberdart. Deuce swings in from the opposite side, and Oath is right behind me. Meanwhile, Zero has our backs covered.

Deuce gives the all-clear. A wasted stun grenade. That means that whoever is on this floor knows we're here. Fortunately, the helmet coms and insulation keep things quiet, but no amount of gear in the Katarn system will dull a grenade of any type.

Zero piles in behind us, wipes two fingers off his right shoulder pad, and points at the wall. We understand: instead of going back into the hall and conducting a room-by-room search, we're going to blow through the wall and keep them guessing.

We take positions as Oath scans the wall with his glove sensors. He rolls out a meter of det tape and affixes it to the wall, a straight line perpendicular to the floor.

"We're good, boss. Fire in the hole."

Zero nods and hits his detonator. The tape slices a line through the wall into the next room; before Deuce obscures my vision by plowing into the wall, I can see straight to the other side. He triggers a few shots, and I hear something clatter to the floor.

"Enemy neutralized."

Oath has our backs as Zero and I step into the next room through the hole Deuce made. The commander cocks his head as he reports the kill to Command and Control, then waves us on. My helmet's external mics pick up the sound of Oath reconfigures his Deece into rifle mode; in such close quarters, his anti-armor rounds would likely shatter the entire house.

Zero's voice resonates through my helmet.

"Oh-Three and Two-Two, take the northern staircase. Two-Oh and I will take the south. EMPs in the hall, each of us takes a room."

We confirm Zero's orders.

"Let's move out, Cryo Squad."

Oath and Deuce split off and go back the way we came to ascend to the next floor, while Zero and I creep on ahead. The sarge has point, I'm trailing. We advance almost back-to-back; not a good thing when the enemy might have grenades, but it's the best way to move around in the cramped space, where anything could pop out of anywhere.

Deuce clicks his com twice, telling us that he's reached the staircase. Zero clicks back once we reach the base of our stairs, then a triple-click to tell the other boys to sync up. Then, "GO!"

I turn a hundred eighty degrees and charge up the stairs with Zero, who'd tossed a grenade ahead of him. It goes off just as we round the landing and hit the second floor. He kicks open the door on the left, I barrel into the one on the right; ahead I see Two-Two and Oath doing the same.

"Contact."  
"Contact!"  
"Enemy sighted."  
"Contact!"

I'm firing before I see him. My shots track up the torso and to the head, then up the wall before I let go of the firing stud.

"Enemy down."  
"Target neutralized."  
"He's cold."  
"Confirm one kill."

Then, a fifth voice, but not an unfamiliar one.

"Endex, endex!"

_Endex_. End exercise. Game over, Cryo Team wins.

We double-check the rooms and head back down the same way we came up, with rifles still armed. The training sergeants were always testing you. If not in these live-fire exercises, then out on the ranges, or during the study periods, or even during the sleep cycles. And don't even get started on the Kaminoans. There's still speculation floating around about that batch that didn't have 20/20 vision that disappeared last month.

We all remember the first time an endex was sounded, and we simply walked out of the Killing House. Forty-Five got a bolt straight to the face. I can still remember seeing his head exploding as I dove to the ground and put a whole clip into the man that we'd not accounted for. That's how we ended up with Oath, who lost the rest of his squad in an exercise.

We exit the blown-open front door and arrange ourselves in a semicircle in front of the House. Nothing. Zero gives the go-ahead, and we all run through the trees to a point designated as the RV.

The second my foot touches down on the triangle displayed on my HUD, the trees disappear, and the House becomes a stark white cube with glass viewports.

Sergeant Bralor appears where a tree used to be.

"Nicely done, squad. Hit the showers, I'll see you in an hour at demolitions."

We all snap to and salute him before going off. We don't take our helmets off until we're in the hall.


	2. Chapter Two: Geonosis

I slap the last charge on the pylon and call it in to the Sarge. His glowing visor nods off in the darkness.

"Let's pack it up, squad."

We leave what's left of the crate in the basement. This isn't a covert op. In fact, there's a pretty long trail of droid parts behind and above us. I double-check and make sure the hundreds of charges are all glowing green. Then we bug out as fast as we can, up the stairs and out the way we came in, then dive into a little cave that Oath found and made bigger.

Zero ducks in last and hits the switch, and all there is is rumbling. Two minutes later, the spire is still falling in on itself, but we can move now. Deuce calls in the gunship as Zero peeks around the edge to see his handiwork.

The gunship glides in, and we're off. Delta Squad took care of the job we were supposed to do with Theta, so we're off the hook, but C&C calls in and says all available personnel with explosives training are needed to help take down a forward observation post. That means us. Apparently the engineers couldn't make it.

We're up and moving now. I've never seen so many droids in my life. I've killed quite a few, but never seen them just running around like that. I can see a huge wall of stone in front of us, and the fortified entrance to the post. There's about a company of clones all lying on the ground there. Poor fierfeks.

The gunship starts taking AA fire and descends immediately to let us off. There's no time to deploy the hooks, so it's a touch-and-go drop. The gunship was literally fifteen centimeters on the ground when we rolled off.

We watch the gunship explode as it takes off again. No time to mourn. Zero orders us to check ammo and weapons. We're all green.

"Let's move, Cryo."

We advance on the post, hugging the canyon walls. We must have tripped some kind of alarm, because suddenly there are droids boiling out of the door. Including a spider droid. Everyone finds a rock to hide behind and starts throwing grenades and anti-armor rounds. I go through my last anti-armor round and switch to sniper and pick off a droid with every shot I have left. Finally it's just the spider droids, and everyone is down to snipers and rifles. Zero nails the spider with a lucky shot to the eye and the thing just shuts down. To be safe, Oath slaps a few charges on it while the rest of us wait.

Then an SBD appears out of nowhere and shoots Oath in the back.

"CRYO DOWN! CRYO DOWN!"

The SBD goes down with a full clip of plasma bolts to the faceplate.

I can't lose another squad member. I hurry to Oath and find he's still breathing, but it sounds jagged, and his armor is scalding hot even through the gloves. Deuce and I drag him inside while Zero clears the area. Deuce joins Zero as I pop Oath's back plate and throw it aside. I'm careful about opening the suit underneath. Sometimes it's the only thing holding a man together…like I found out with Cappie.

I do a medical scan with some gear from my pack. Looks sound. I open the suit and see his back is covered with blisters and the biggest bruise a man has a right to suffer.

I hear explosions a floor up. I hope Deuce and Zero caused them. I stab Oath with a painkiller sharp and close up his suit and armor while the fearless leaders come back down. Deuce calls in to C&C.

"Post Aurek-Nine-Nine neutralized. Cryo requesting extraction, one down. Repeat, one wounded."

The gunship arrives, and we slide Oath on first. His breathing still sounds unnatural. I hear the blasterfire that filled the canyon is starting to die down. Maybe we'll be out of here soon.


End file.
